Evil Ash is a villain in the Evil Dead movies and is none other than Ash Williams himself, or—to be more accurate—the dark-half of Ash's personality given corporeal form by Kandarian Demon. He serves as the main antagonist of Army of Darkness, which was the third film in the Evil Dead series.

Contents

Biography

Evil Dead 2

Bad/Mirror Ash from "Evil Dead II"

Evil Ash began his "life" as an entity known as Bad Ash, who appeared out of a mirror during the events of Evil Dead II and proceeded to torment his heroic counterpart - trying to drive him mad - indeed the whole Bad Ash scenario was suggestive of Ash beginning to lose his sanity and could arguably be seen as Ash battling his inner-demons on a literal level.

Army of Darkness.

Evil Ash (left) and Good Ash (right)

When both Ash and Kandarian Demon are sent back into the past, Kandarian Demon chases Ash into a windmill where Ash breaks a mirror, splitting his reflection into the Tiny Ashes that brought to life as the extension of Kandarian Demon itself. When one jumps down Ash's throat, they become Bad Ash, which splits off the original Ash, leading to a hilarious but anti-climatic confrontation where Ash kills his evil counterpart by dismemberment and buries him, in which when buried alive, Bad Ash, now also entity whom being part of Kandarian Demon, become more serious, but is helpless due to dismemberment.

Shortly after, Ash misspeaks the words of the Necronomicon, raising Bad Ash as the more powerful Evil Ash, this incarnation was completely immortal and made himself the leader of the Deadite armies in direct opposition to his heroic counterpart - who was reluctantly acting as a hero to a medieval army of his own (due to time-travel related mishaps).

Evil Ash fought with Good Ash over the course of the movie and became more hideous as varied violent acts (which would be fatal to most) simply disfigured his already rotting body further - despite the damage he took over the course of the film he was driven by a crazed zeal to retrieve the Necromonicon, the Deadite's ultimate source of power, from the human settlement Ash was defending.

Evil Ash stormed the settlement with his titular "army of darkness" and a war broke out, with regular Ash's help the tide was turned in humanity's favor - however Evil Ash proved more formidable and via brute strength and sword made his way towards the Necromonicon but the original Ash sets him ablaze, yet even this is not enough and a now skeletonised Evil Ash battles his heroic counterpart again: in an ironic twist regular Ash cuts off Evil Ash's right hand before tossing him onto a lit bag of gunpowder resting on a catapult, regular Ash cuts the cord and sends Evil Ash catapulting to an explosive demise.

Lesser Evil Ash

Ash and the Lesser Evil Ash

A new incarnation of Evil Ash make an appearance in the episode Ashes to Ashes of Ash Vs. Evil Dead TV Series that set on the same universe in the film. Unlike the previous incarnation whom appeared in Army of Darkness and Evil Dead II, this Evil Ash is appeared to be serve as the lesser variant that grew from Ash's original severed hand that corrupted into Deadite Arm.

Ash and Amanda reach the cabin and Ash leaves to search the workshed. Evil Ash appears, who has regenerated out of Ash's severed hand. Evil Ash attempts to convince Amanda to run away with him and she is almost convinced until she sees his decayed hand, after making a few insulting comments toward him, Evil Ash loses his temper and attacks her. The two fight and Amanda chops off the decaying hand. He mortally wounds Amanda by hacking a cleaver into her shoulder, who then falls and is impaled by antlers on a stag head. Ash finds her dying as Kelly and Pablo discover the cabin, Ash explains about the "other me", finds Evil Ash and fights. After a struggle, they began to strangle each other.

It became up to Pablo and Kelly to determine which was the real Ash. As the both of them tried to claim to be the good one, using minor racist remarks and details of his partners that only the real Ash would know. Kelly and Pablo finally shot Evil Ash, after Ash said to shoot them both (and the real Ash likes Asians). Afterwards Ash would have to once again dismember the remains of his dead evil twin.

Comics Continuity

However true to his immortal nature Evil Ash returns in Evil Dead: Hail To The King - for some reason in this setting he has developed shape-shifting abilities and the ability to launch fireballs: he is also a recurring antagonist in the Evil Dead comics, as the dark half of Ash made flesh (much like the movie) - in the comics he is utterly obsessed with killing his "pure" half.

Personality

Army of Darkness Incarnation

Beside his ruthless and conquering personnality, Evil Ash inherited much of his traits from Ash, yelling when enter in the castle like when Ash do it and uses funny mimics when seducing Sheila or when fightning the knights.

Lesser Evil Ash

Lesser Evil Ash' personality is more and less same with it's Army of Darkness incarnation, but is more manipulative as he able to seduca Amanda before killed her and would do the same with the others. However, the said manipulation was the only trump cart that he had due to lacks any powers of his own.

Powers and Abilities

Army of Darkness Incarnation

Being also an extension of Kandarian Demon itself, Evil Ash has following powers:

Immortality: After being reanimated by the Necronomicon, Evil Ash can survive nearly anything into the form of a decomposed body like when he got pierce by a spear or stab multiple times by sword. However he doesn't survive to being explosed with powder.

Deadite Conversion: He was able to transform Sheila into a deadite without killing her.

Deadites Ruling: Evil Ash was the supreme leader of the army of darkness, without any undead challenging his authority.

Skilled Swordsman: During the final battle, he show himself to be a good sword fighter.

Skilled Shooter: He show himself to be a good shooter with a crossbow.

Expert Hand-to-hand combattant: He is a good bare hands fighter, prove by his fight with Ash, who is himself a great opponent.

Ash Vs Evil Dead Incarnation

Evil Ash whom featured in Ash Vs Evil Dead episode Ashes to Ashes is the lesser variant of Evil Ash whom grew from Ash's corrupted severed hand is can be considered as the lesser, inferior variant of the one whom original Ash faced in events of Army of Darkness, as this particular Evil Ash lacks all power of the previous incarnation's powers and is immediately killed off. But is still a dangerous opponent as this Evil Ash was also manipulative, though not competent enough from saving himself from Pablo and Kelly.

Gallery

Trivia

Wiseman, a servant of King Arthur of England, refers to Evil Ash as "the evil", which is also used to refer to the evil force comprised of the demon spirits from the first two films and incidentally is seen chasing Ash moments before Evil Ash comes out of the mirror. This reveals that Evil Ash is in fact, a physical extension of the Kandarian Demon combined with Ash's dark side in the mirror. Further explanation of Wiseman's words at that moment was Kandarian Demon manages to took some traits from Ash while possessed him, resulting Evil Ash's birth and power over Deadite army called Army of Darkness.

Evil Ash in his Deadite form can be considered similar to Jason Voorhees (who was also resurrected by the Necronomicon). Both are able to withstand injuries which would kill anyone else. Evil Ash's immortality isn't centered on nearly as much, however, as he is completely destroyed at the end of Army of Darkness.

Evil Ash is heavily referenced with Taker of Souls when appears as Abomination Mia.